The Iranian mullahs are nothing if not vindictive: the Washington Examiner revealed Monday that “at least two Iranians belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ covert-action Quds Force have been plotting to assassinate former national security adviser John Bolton, according to a Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the investigation.” Yes, John Bolton, who flounced out of the Trump administration in a righteous rage in 2019 and hasn’t been in a position of power or influence since. And yes, now, even as Biden’s handlers are prepared to give the Iranian regime everything it wants and more in Vienna, in a new nuke deal. And that’s why those who are responsible for this plot are not being called out: the Biden administration doesn’t want to do anything to offend the Iranians and prevent the nuke deal from being sealed. Yes, really.
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The Examiner reported that the Justice Department “possesses indictable evidence against the Iranians,” but nothing is going to happen, because “Biden administration officials are resisting publicly indicting the men for fear that it could derail their drive for a nuclear deal with Iran, currently nearing completion in negotiations in Vienna, Austria.”
The DoJ has almost certainly not moved on this: “It is possible but unlikely that there are sealed indictments against the men, but the DOJ source said the seriousness of the conspiracy and the evidence warranted public indictment without delay. Sealed indictments would be unusual and probably unnecessary in this case, as they are usually used to prevent the target evading justice. The Quds Force is fully aware of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence attention toward it, so its members are unlikely to put themselves in a position to be arrested with or without a sealed indictment.”
Somewhat irritably, the Justice Department denied that it wasn’t indicting those responsible because of the new nuke deal, saying that “it would be categorically false to claim that these kinds of policy considerations would drive such a charging decision.” Well, sure: in a sane, America-First administration, the deal would be off as soon as Iran started plotting to assassinate an American official.
Related: Did Biden Officials Lie Under Oath About Iran?
But this is the Biden administration we’re talking about, and it’s not at all outside the realm of possibility that Biden’s handlers would be avid to pursue the nuclear agreement above all other considerations. They have already been making concession after concession, as Russian negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov revealed when he said admiringly that “Iranian clerics are fighting for Iranian nuclear – uh, national interests like lions. Indeed, I’m very serious. They fight for every comma, every word, and as a rule quite successfully. I must recognize that. … I am absolutely sincere in this regard when I say Iran got much more than it could expect. Much more. Realistically speaking, Iran got more than, frankly, I expected, others expected. This is a matter of fact.”
Since the Americans are busy giving everything away to Iran, why not ignore the Bolton plot as well?
That plot appears to have been in its advanced stages; it included “significant reconnaissance activity” by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and “involved an effort to recruit an assassin on U.S. soil.” Because of this plot, Bolton in late 2021 or early 2022 was given full-time Secret Service protection, and “significant FBI assets were also deployed to disrupt the plot and assist in protecting” him. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan seems to have signaled American knowledge of the plot on Jan. 9, when he warned Iran that the U.S. would protect all those “serving the United States now and those who formerly served.”
According to the Examiner’s source inside the DoJ, “prosecutors, FBI agents, and intelligence community personnel involved in disrupting the plot against Bolton are frustrated and angry that there have been no indictments and suspect political foot-dragging.” But nothing is likely to happen, because the Biden administration, like John Bolton, hates Donald Trump with burning intensity. Trump ridiculed and rejected the crowning foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration, the Iran nuclear deal. Biden’s handlers, who include, of course, many of the same people who concluded the Obama nuke deal, are determined to vindicate their former boss and give their hapless new boss an achievement he can brag about (if he ever takes a break from blaming everybody else for his failures) by reviving the nuclear deal with Iran, no matter what the cost.
And the cost could be very, very high.
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